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ANALYSIS 



SOME STATISTICS 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION; 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 



NEW" YORK, 



JANUARY 3, 1«70, 



LA 

."Be. 



BI THE PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE 



PRINTED FOR THE USE OF THE TRUSTEES. 



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Class \ K _ 

Book -, 'r- " 



SMITHSONIAN.. DEPOSIT 



ANALYSIS 



SOME STATISTICS 




COLLEGIATE EDUCATION 



A PAPER READ BEFORE THE TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 



NEW YORK, 



JANUARY 3, 1870, 



BY THE PRESIDENT 0F v THE COLLEGE. 

>"^ * ■ —L-j . 



PRINTED FOR THE USE OP THE TRUSTEES* 

h 



u 



COMMUNICATION. 



To the Honorable, 

The Board of Trustees of Columbia College : 
The undersigned, president of the college, begs leave to 
submit a statement of certain facts in regard to collegiate 
education in the State of New York and the adjacent States, 
which seem to be of interest in their bearing upon the present 
and prospective condition and power of usefulness of Colum- 
bia College in its academic department. 

Nothing- is, unhappily, more noticeable in the educational his- 
tory of our country, than the frequency with which earnest and 
well intended effort appears to have been misdirected, and 
praiseworthy beneficence injudiciously applied, in the creation of 
institutions having the nominal grade of colleges. In the 
American Year Book and National Register for 1869, edited by 
David N. Camp, Esq., of Hartford, there is given a list of the 
collegiate institutions of the United States, which embraces the 
names of two hundred and eighty-five of these institutions. 
Among the number, however, are included nearly fifty colleges 
for young ladies, and military or other institutes for young- 
men, which have no proper place in such a list ; besides 
which, there are about thirty collegiate schools under the direc- 
tion of the Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church, half of 
which, at least, are probably merely training schools for boys, 
and are not chartered colleges, empowered to confer degrees 



4 STATISTICS OF 

in the Liberal Arts. Making all the deductions which these 
considerations suggest as necessary, there remain, nevertheless, 
after all, not fewer than two hundred and twenty institutions 
in the country, which claim, and, so far as municipal law can 
bestow it, possess, the right to rank themselves as schools of 
the highest learning, and to occupy places in the same class 
with Harvard, and Yale, and Princeton, and Columbia. 

It will be shown in the course of the f blowing inquiry, that 
the total number of students in attendance on the colleges of 
our country, bears usually a proportion to the white population, of 
about one individual to two thousand inhabitants. Assuming 
the correctness of this result, and taking the total white popu- 
lation of the United States to be, in round numbers, 35,000,000, 
we shall see that there are about 17,500 undergraduate students, 
in all, now under instruction in American colleges ; or, upon 
an average, eighty students in each college. If there are any 
institutions, and there are some, whose numbers are largely in 
excess of this average, they enjoy this advantage at the expense 
of the rest ; and the fact, therefore, is, that the great majority 
of the so-called colleges have fewer than eighty students each. 
It is true that, in regard to many of them, this fact does not 
immediately appear from a cursory examination of their cata- 
logues. Still less is it apparent in a summary publication like 
that of Mr. Camp, referred to above, which presents only bare 
totals, without classification ; for into such totals are brought 
together pupils in elementary schools, professional schools, prac- 
tical schools, agricultural schools, scientihe schools, and other 
institutions not at all collegiate in their character, which are 
more or less nearly connected with such colleges. There are 
not a few of this class whose principal attendance is made up 
of pupils pursuing what are commonly called " preparatory 
studies." 

The effect of this unnecessary multiplication of colleges upon 
the character of the higher education of the country is not 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. O 

4 

beneficial. Its tendency is to put this education, to a great 
extent, into the hands of inferior men ; with the additional 
disadvantage of providing even these inferior laborers with 
inferior means and implements of labor. No well appointed 
college can be established without the investment of a large 
amount of capital, which, by the form in which the investment 
must be made, becomes immediately, in a commercial sense, 
unproductive. And no adequate provision can be made for the 
support of suitably qualified instructors, without a further large 
investment made in such form as to be permanently produc- 
tive. Tuition fees may furnish some slight help in defraying 
current expenses ; but no college which depends on tuition fees 
alone can be well appointed, or can even long exist. But 
when a college has been once established, and properly pro- 
vided with resources sufficient to insure its permanence, and 
to enable it to do the work it proposes to itself as such work 
ought to be done, it will be competent to furnish instruction 
to several hundred students as easily as to sixty or eighty. 
There will be, it is true, some difference in the necessary annual 
expense in the two cases supposed, but it will not be important. 
Some few additional instructors will be necessary, but no new 
departments of instruction ; and the increased receipts from 
tuition will go far to compensate for the increase of the necessary 
disbursements. But however much the annual expenditures of 
a college might be augmented, on supposition that a single such 
institution should take upon itself to perform all the work now 
distributed between three or four, it is quite out of the question 
to suppose that they would become equal to the cost of main- 
taining three or four colleges. This, at least, is quite unsuppos- 
able if the colleges concerned are presumed to be really well 
appointed colleges. The necessary inference therefore is, either 
that the country voluntarily bears a burthen, in support of colle- 
giate education, three or four times as heavy as it need be, or 
that, of the institutions which bear the title and legally exercise 



6 



STATISTICS OF 



the privileges of colleges, a very large number are not well pro- 
vided with the instrumentalities indispensable to the efficiency 
of educational agencies of the highest grade. 

Many influences conspire to stimulate or to favor the crea- 
tion of colleges unnecessarily. The most powerful of these is 
probably denominational feeling ; but local pride has often 
also much to do with the matter. The last thing in many 
cases really considered, is the question whether or not, in fact, 
the public has need of such a college at all. If, however, this 
question were first of all carefully examined, and if public spirit- 
ed and liberal men were only appealed to for aid in such un- 
dertakings on the strength of a well ascertained public want, 
and with the evidence of that want distinctly set before them, 
the erection of a new college would be a much more rare 
occurrence in the future than it lias been in the past, and 
colleges when erected would be much more worthy than many 
of them are at present, to be called institutions for higher edu- 
cation. 

In the analysis which follows of some of the statistics of 
collegiate education in the Northeastern States of the Union, 
will be found some evidence of what is the relation of the 
supply of education of this description to the popular demand, 
and to what extent this demand is growing or declining. It 
is to be regretted that minor details of interest relating to this 
subject are not now easily accessible in regard to former years; 
but an effort has been instituted which may be to some extent 
successful in collecting such, and these may be presented here- 
after. 

In the States of New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, 
Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island there are 
twenty colleges, besides the three which belong to the city of 
New York. The undersigned has collected the catalogues for 
the current year of all these colleges except the Cornell Uni- 
versity, Union College, and the College of New Jersey. The 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 7 

latest catalogue of Union College which it has been possible to 
obtain is that of 1868 ; the latest of Princeton and Cornell 
University are the catalogues for 1869, those for 1869-70 not 
having yet been issued. These catalogues have been scruti- 
nized by the undersigned for the purpose of ascertaining, first, 
what number of students are actually in attendance upon those 
institutions from New York city, and what number from Brook- 
lyn, Staten Island, Jersey City, and Hoboken; which places have 
been classed together as being substantially parts of the city, 
though not under the same municipal government : and sec- 
ondly, to what extent do the several colleges named derive their 
numbers from the States in which they are situated, or from 
the joint territory of the seven States, and to what extent are 
they recruited from more distant comnmnities. 

In the following table will be found succinctly presented the 
results of the first of these inquiries. As it respects one of 
the institutions included in the list, an explanation is necessary. 
Cornell University embraces nine distinct schools, of which one 
only — the School of the Liberal Arts — corresponds to the American 
college. Another — the Elective School — permits to the student 
the study of the classics if he chooses to pursue it ; but the 
rest, such as the School of Agriculture, the School of Engi- 
neering, the School of the Mechanic Arts, etc., are to be regard- 
ed as schools of special or professional education, and ranked 
in the class to which our School of Mines, and the Sheffield 
Scientific School of Yale College, belong. In the preparation 
of the table therefore, so far as this institution is concerned, 
all students are excluded from the comparison who belong to 
these special schools, and pursue practical or scientific courses 
of study of which classical literature is not in any manner a 
part. 



STATISTICS OF 



Students from New York- and if* environ* in the several colleges of 
New York, New Jersey, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and Rhode Island: 



Name of College. 



Union (1868) 

Hamilton (1870) 

Madison " 

Genesee . . : " 

Hobart 

Rochester " 

Cornell (1860) 

Harvard (1870) 

Williams " 

Amherst " 

Tufts " 

Princeton " 

Rutgers (1870) 

Yale " 

Trinity " 

Wesley an " 

Brown " 

Middlebury 

Univ. of Vermont. " 
Dartmouth " 

Total 



Students from 
New York City. 





3 

5 



1 

1 

7f 
10 

7 

5 


10 

3 
38 

3 
10 



1 



2 

115 



Students from Vi- 
cinity of New York 



Total. 



0* 
2 
7 
1 
1 
4 
2$ 
5 
8 
1 

8 
3 
17 
1 

1 


2 




5 

12 
1 
2 
5 


24 

15 
9 


18 
6 

55 
4 

19 
1 
1 

4 

190 



The inquiry has not been extended to Maine on the east, or to 
the States west of New York and New Jersey, partly for want of 
material, and partly because, from a very thorough examination of 
this statistical question for the year 1 864-5, by D. J. Pratt, Esq., As- 
sistant Secretary to the Regents of the University, published in the 
Proceedings of the University Convocation for 1865, New York City 
appeared at that time to furnish no students to the colleges of the 
first-mentioned State, and only three to Pennsylvania, seven to 
Ohio, and one to all the rest. Assuming, then, that, besides the 



* 1 Scientific, t 1 reg. ; G irreg. | irreg. 



Collegiate education. y 

115 shown in the foregoing table to be sent out of the city at pres- 
ent, there are a dozen scattered elsewhere, the number of students 
from New York now in attendance upon colleges at a distance is 
only 127 in all, and these are distributed in such a manner as in 
general to indicate the existence of special reasons for sending 
them abroad, other than a want of confidence in the colleges of the 
city. Such reasons may be found, first, in the denominational 
character of the distant institutions; secondly, in the natural par- 
tiality of parents for the institutions in which they were themselves 
educated; and thirdly, in the presence, in the several university 
towns, of relatives of families in New York. It must be remembered 
that a very large number of our fellow-citizens are natives of the 
country and not of New York, and that they have only made the 
great metropolis their home after having completed their education 
elsewhere, and having attained to adult years. These have left be- 
hind them many ties of kindred which continue to bind them to the 
scenes of their earlier life, and render it natural and convenient 
for them to provide for their sons an educational career identical 
with that which they themselves pursued. A further manifestation 
of the attachment of these graduates of rural or distant colleges 
to the institutions which fostered them, is exhibited also in their 
spontaneous association here into permanent clubs, which annually 
meet to keep alive the pleasant memoi'ies of academic life. That 
out of a community embracing a million of souls, a little over a 
score of young men per annum (for this number would suffice to 
maintain the present state of things) should be determined to seek 
collegiate education at a distance, rather than at home, cannot be 
considered surprising. But this phenomenon is not a new one, 
appearing for the first time to day. If records were accessible, it is 
believed it would be found that New York has always sent to dis- 
tnat colleges a number of students bearing as great a proportion 
to its population as at present, if not a greater. In regard to the 
institution which figures most conspicuously in the foregoing table, 
the undersigned happens to have such records in his possession, 

2 



10 STATISTICS OF 

consisting of a series of annual catalogues extending from the 
academic year 1824-5 to that of 183(5-7. In the fall of 1824 there 
were fifteen young men from New York in Yale College. This city 
contained then 240,000 inhabitants; now there are only thirty-eight, 
though our population has become not less than 900,000. In 1830 
there were twenty-one New York undergraduates in the same 
college. The population of New York was then 312,000. If the 
proportion had been maintained up to the present time, there ought 
to be sixty or more New Yorkers in Yale College this year instead 
of thirty-eight. 

The report of Mr. Pratt referred to above furnishes us a complete 
exhibit of the state of the case in regard to the general question 
under consideration, as it stood five years ago. Mr. Pratt found, 
from an examination of the catalogues of all the colleges concerned 
for the year 1864-5, that the city and county of New York sent 
in that year to New England colleges seventy-seven students, to 
New York colleges one hundred and eighty-nine students, to 
New Jersey colleges eighteen students, to Pennsylvania colleges 
three students, to Ohio colleges seven students, and to Michigan 
colleges one student. In order to ascertain the number sent out 
of the city, it is necessary to deduct from the one hundred and 
eighty-nine in New York colleges, the number from the city and 
county who were then attending Columbia College and the New 
York City University. The College of the City of New York, then 
called the Free Academy, was not considered by Mr. Pratt. From 
the contemporaneous catalogues of the two institutions mentioned' 
it appears that there were in attendance at Columbia College, from 
the city and county, one hundred and ten, and at the University 
thirty-two; in all, one hundred and forty-two ; which number, taken 
from one hundred and eighty-nine, leaves forty-seven, as the number 
sent to the country colleges of New York from the city in 1801 5. 
Mr. Pratt's results are presented, for the purpose of direct compar- 
ison, along with those above given for the present year, in the fol- 
lowing succinct statement : 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 



11 



Students from New York City in attendance on colleges not in the city. 



Year. 


Tn colleges of 
New England. 


In colleges of 
New York State. 


In colleges of 
New Jersey. 


In colleges of 

other states. 


Total. 


1864 65. 

1869-70. 


77 
85 


47 
17 


18 
13 


11 

12* 


153 
127 



These numbers make it apparent that fewer students are sent 
from New York to distant collegiate institutions at the present 
time than were so sent live years ago. The difference is con- 
siderable. It appears, also, that the falling off in the numbers 
sent to the colleges of the State of New York has been strik- 
ing, while in the number sent to the New England colleges 
there has been a slight increase. The comparison more than 
confirms the opinion expressed above, that there always has 
been, and for obvious reasons there always must be, a consid- 
erable number of young men sent annually out of this city to 
seek collegiate education elsewhere. But so far as it goes, it 
strengthens also the inference which would be drawn from the 
comparison made above between the earlier and later cata- 
logues of Yale College, viz., that the number of students so sent 
abroad does not grow in equal ratio with the increase of the 
population of the city. 

Having, as the result of the inquiry above detailed, ascertained 
the number of young men belonging to this city and its vicinity who 
are now in process of acquiring a liberal education in distant 
institutions, we have but to add the number actually at present 
in the colleges within the city itself, in order to determine the 
total number of college students which this community at the 
present time furnishes. We may then, perhaps, find means, 
from the documents before us, of ascertaining whether or not 
it is true that the proportion of college students to the total 
population is less in the city than in the country. The im- 



* Estimate. 



12 STATISTICS OF 

pression of the undersigned has hitherto been that this is 
really the ease, but the result of the present inquiry has not 
confirmed it. At the same time the important fact continues 
to be increasingly evident, which was first stated after an exam- 
ination of the statistics then accessible in the annual report 
of the undersigned to the Trustees in 186(5, that every where 
throughout the country, that system of general mental culture 
which is to so large an extent dependent on the careful study of 
classical literature, and which has been so long believed to be indis- 
pensable to finished scholarship, is losing ground from year to 
year in the favor of the people ; and, consequently, that the 
number of students liberally educated among us, in city and 
in country alike, when compared with the total population, is 
steadily diminishing. In that report, it may be remembered 
that an examination was made of the entire number of stu- 
dents in the colleges of the United States, as compared with 
the population of the whole country, for the years 1840 and 
1860, the educational statistics employed having been derived 
from the American Almanac, and the statistics of population 
from the United States Census. A similar comparison was, at 
the same time, separately made for the group of States em- 
bracing New England, New York, and New Jersey. The Ameri- 
can Almanac has since been discontinued ; the publication 
which has been already mentioned, under the title of the 
American Year Book and National Register, was commenced 
at the beginning of the present year ; and from this have 
been derived the college statistics for the year 1868. For the 
year 1869, the published catalogues of the colleges within the 
group of States just named, with one or two unimportant ex- 
ceptions, have been collected ; and in regard to these excep- 
tions, the numbers of the preceding year have been employed, 
with some slight estimated correction. It has been impossible 
to extend the examination to States further west or south, on 
account, in part, of the imperfection of the returns, and in part 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 



13 



of the form in which the returns have been made ; students 
in preparatory, professional, and scientific schools having been 
in so many instances included with candidates for the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts, as entirely to destroy the value of the 
data for the purposes of the present inquiry. 

The population of the States in question in the years 1868 
and 1869 has been computed, by deducing a compounding 
ratio of increase from enumerations made by State or national 
authority in the years 1850, I860, and 1865. A State census 
was taken in the year last named in New York, New Jersey, 
Khode Island, and Massachusetts. For these States the ratio 
of increase has been deduced by comparing this with the na- 
tional census of 1860. For the others, the ratio has been 
derived from the comparison of the numbers of the general 
enumerations of 1850 and 1860. The results obtained are 
herewith given, those presented in the report of 1866 above 
mentioned being prefixed, for purposes of comparison : 



1810 
1860 
1868 
1869 



Population. 



No. of Stu- 
dents. 



5,037,04!) 
7,(588,067 
7,980,000 
8,01 7,100 



3,145 
4,536 
4,197* 
4,355 



Ratio to Popu- 
lation. 



1 to 1,602 

1 to 1,695 

1 to 1,901 

1 to 1,841 



* The falling off in the number of students between 1800 and 1868 is too great to 
be attributed to the general causes which have produced the decline in popular 
favor of the system of collegiate instruction noticed in the report of 1866, and referred 
to in this paper, and is, doubtless, ascribable to the derangement in the whole 
educational system of the country occasioned by the war— a derangement the 
effects of which have not even yet entirely disappeared. It is on this account that 
no dependence has been placed, for the purposes of this inquiry, upon the care- 
fully elaborated statistics of Mr. Pratt for the year 1804-5 ; as the disturbance of 
the law of movement was at that time excessively great. In fact, the total number 
of students found by Mr. Pratt in the colleges of New England, New York, and 
New Jersey in the year above mentioned was only 3,2i2, while the population of 
these States, taken directly from the census returns for 1865, for the States of New 
York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, and computed from the 
observed law of movement between 1850 and 1860 for the rest, was 7,868,700. This 



14 



STATISTICS OF 



If we consider that the number of male persons between 
the ages of 10 and 20 forms, as may easily be shown from 
the census, almost exactly one twenty-fourth part of the popu- 
lation, it Avill be seen that, in the several years above named, 
only one person was enjoying the benefits of a collegiate edu- 
cation out of the numbers severally following, viz. : 



In 1840, one out of 07 

1800, " " " 71 

1808, " " " 79 

1809, " " " 77 



of suitable asre to receive it. 



These numbers, however, present the case under a more 
favorable aspect than. the truth will warrant. For it happens 
that many of the colleges in the group of States under con- 
sideration receive very important accessions to their numbers 
from States beyond the limits of their joint territory, while 
the collegiate institutions of other States are scarcely resorted 
to from these at all. It is necessary, therefore, to a correct 
solution of the question, that a deduction should be made of 
all students in the group of States considered, whose proper 
domicile is not in some one of these States. This can only 
be done by an examination of the catalogues of the several 



would show a ratio of one student to every 2,450 of the population, and would 
indicate that only one young man in every hundred, ol suitable age to be under 
instruction in college, was enjoying the benefit of a liberal education. 

One quite noticeable fact makes itself manifest, in a comparison of the numbers 
of Mr. Pratt for 1864-5, with those collected by the present writer from precisely 
the same sources for 1869 70, which is, that while the number of undergraduate 
students in all the colleges of the States considered, taken together, has increased 
more than thirty-live per cent., or to an absolute extent of 1,113, the number con- 
tributed to the total by New York city is considerably smaller in the latter than in 
the former year. Mr. Pratt's total for New York city and county in 1864 5 is 2U5, 
the New York City College not being included in his list. But the attendance in 
the City College was as large in that year as now, and the total above given should 
therefore be increased by the same number (ISO) which is allowed to that institu- 
tion in the text. New York city furnished then 475 students to the colleges of the 
city and country together in 1865, and she furnishes 434 in 1870. There has been 
an absolute falling off of forty-one. 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 15 

institutions concerned, for each of the dates to which the 
inquiry extends. It is only for the last of these dates that 
the documents necessary for such an examination are at hand. 
From a comparison of these, it appears that, of 4,355 stu- 
dents present in 1809 in the colleges of New England, New 
York, and New Jersey, there were 711 who did not belong to 
any one of these States. Subtracting these from the total, 
there remain 3,611 properly belonging to the States under 
consideration, or one to every 2,220 inhabitants. Of the young 
men of these States of suitable age to be pursuing collegiate 
studies, one in 93 appears to take such a course. 

If we exclude from this comparison the three extreme New 
England States, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, which 
furnish a considerable number of students to the colleges of 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York, while 
themselves scarcely drawing any from these latter States, we 
shall obtain a result still more striking. The population of 
the States of the group remaining after this exclusion is 6,095,- 
900, and the number of students in the colleges of these States 
in 1869 is 3,420 — a proportion of 1 to 1,958 inhabitants, appa- 
rently indicating that one young man in 82 receives a collegiate 
education. But out of this total of 3,420, only 2,608 students 
belong to the States in question, showing that in these old and 
populous States, only one student is sent to college for every 
2,567 inhabitants, and that only one young man in 107 is lib- 
really educated. 

We are now prepared to judge how far the opinion is cor- 
rect that New York furnishes to our collegiate institutions 
fewer students than her proportionate quota. Of the 129 
undergraduates in Columbia College at present, 93 are prop- 
erly resident in the city of New York. In the University of 
the city, there are 34 who are also city residents. Of the 
more than 500 in the City College, possibly 180 are properly 



i6 STATISTICS OF 

collegiate students.* And to these we have to add the 127 
Avho are scattered, as we have seen, through colleges at a dis- 
tance. The total is 434. 

How great the population of the city may be at the present 
time it is not perhaps easy to conjecture. The census of 1865, 
which showed an apparent falling off since 1860 of nearly 90,- 
000, has not been regarded with entire confidence. If we place 
the total at 850,000 the estimate will hardly be esteemed exces- 
sive ; and probably 900,000 would be nearer the truth. 

Taken at 850,000, New York furnishes one student to every 
1,960 inhabitants, and one young man out of every 82 receives 
a collegiate education. Taken at 900,000, the city furnishes one 
student to every 2,074 inhabitants, and gives to one young man 
in every 86, the benefit of a liberal education. 

If we add to the 434 collegiate students furnished by New 
York, the 75 furnished at the same time by the immediately ad- 
jacent towns and cities to distant colleges, and twenty-five more 
attending on the colleges in the city from the same cities and towns, 
making 100 in all, we shall have a total of 534 ; and if we at 
the same time assume the total population to be 1,150,000, we 
shall find that these numbers give a proportion of one student 
to 2,154 inhabitants, and that one young man in 90 in this en- 
tire community is educated in college, either in this city or else- 
where. 

We see then, that our city compares not unfavorably, in the re- 
spect manifested by her people for collegiate education, with 



* The number of properly collegiate students in this institution may be inferred 
from the numbers present in the Senior and Junior classes, or from the average 
number of graduates. In the catalogue for 18(58-9, there are named forty-two 
Seniors and forty-four Juniors. The average number of graduates from 1865 
to 1869 inclusive, was thirty-one per annum ; from 1N00 to 186-4 inclusive, it 
was forty-one ; and from 1S53 (the year in which the first class was graduated) to 
1859 inclusive, it was twenty-four. The collegiate course proper occupying four 
years, it will be seen that the estimated number of collegiate students in the insti- 
tution is probably above the truth. 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 17 

the State in which she is situated, or those by which she is 
surrounded. Her average is superior to that which we have 
found for • the group of States to which we have particularly 
directed our attention, and superior, in a very marked degree, 
to that of tli6 smaller group beginning with Massachusetts and 
ending with New Jersey. It is not easy, therefore, to see how 
the number of undergraduate students in Columbia College can 
be materially increased, so long as the institution continues to 
depend wholly upon the city and its environs for its attendance, 
and so long as it continues to maintain severely the curriculum 
of study to which it has been hitherto confined. This com- 
munity supplies a certain number of aspirants for the kind of 
culture which this curriculum furnishes. We have seen what 
that number is, and how it is disposed of. The reasons which 
determine the great majority who resort to distant colleges, are 
of a nature which no modifications of our system, and no new 
attractions which we may hold out, will avail to affect. To a 
large extent they are founded on considerations purely senti- 
mental, and to a degree somewhat less, on denominational pref- 
erences ; but there is no evidence that, in any appreciable 
number of cases, the choice is determined by distrust of the 
character of the institutions of the city. It is true that the 
feelings of young men are to some degree biassed by a wish 
to be partakers of that species of academic society which is 
only to be found in collegiate communities where students per- 
manently reside, and form, as it were, one great family. There 
are even parents to whom it seems desirable that their sons 
should have the kind of indirect culture which such a society 
affords ; or shall at least have those initiatory experiences of an 
independent life, which, while they are attended with indubita- 
ble dangers, are not, if these can be avoided, without their sub- 
stantial advantages. How far this cause may be influential in in- 
creasing the number of those who pass by the institutions of 
this city to seek collegiate education at a distance, it would not 

3 



18 STATISTICS OF 

be easy to ascertain ; but that it has some such influence can 
hardly be doubted. 

We are to consider, then, that this city furnishes, at the pres- 
ent time, a little upward of one hundred collegiate students 
per annum, of whom about twenty-five will resort to distant 
colleges for reasons beyond our control. Such has been the 
case to a certain and even to a larger proportional extent in 
past years, and such it will doubtless continue to be. The re- 
maining seventy-five or eighty will be parcelled out between the 
City College, the City University, and our own institution. The 
City College, in virtue of certain peculiar influences, will take 
some forty-five of these ; and the remaining thirty-five are all 
that are left for Columbia College and the University. The 
average number of city students in the University has of late 
years been very small. In 1808 it was only six on an average 
to a class ; in the present year it is a little over eight. On 
the other hand, the University has a larger attendance than 
our college from Long Island and New Jersey. 

The cause which prevents any rapid growth in the numbers 
of our undergraduate students, and which may even keep them 
stationary or reduce them still further, is evidently the existence 
of the college of the city. As a collegiate institution, that col- 
lege is not needed ; but it does, at a great expense, the work 
for which the colleges already in existence at the time of its 
creation were amply sufficient ; and it paralyzes to a correspond- 
ing degree the usefulness of those institutions. The system by 
which it is recruited is one which gives it an advantage which 
we have no adequate means of counteracting ; and the fact that 
it furnishes tuition free, will always be a reason, though often 
not an avowed one, why men even of ample means will send 
their sons to it rather than to Columbia College. It is true 
that our college offers tuition also free ; but that fact by no 
means places us in this respect on a level with the City Col- 
lege ; for men do not desire to feel that they are exceptionally 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 19 

favored ; and they will often reject as a gift what they would 
be very glad to receive if permitted to regard it as a right. * 
If tuition fees in our undergraduate college were abolished, it 
is probable that the consequence would be somewhat to increase 
our numbers. But the effect of offering free tuition to the in- 
digent is not sensible. 

It is occasionally said in the newspapers, and we hear it from 
time to time repeated in conversation, that because Columbia 
College has been more than a century in existence, she ought 
now to rival or surpass in numbers other colleges founded like 
her during the colonial period, such as those at Princeton, at 
New Haven, and at Cambridge; all of which have at present 
in this respect the advantage of her. Persons who thus speak 
do not consider, or perhaps they are not aware of, two impor- 
tant facts : first, that the institutions thus cited do not sensibly 
grow — do not generally even hold their own — if judged by 
the support they receive at home ; and, secondly, that colleges 
in great cities like New York, which provide only instruction, 
but not either board or lodging for the student, cannot be re- 
cruited by accessions from the country. Such is the expense 
of living in the city, and so difficult is it to obtain convenient 
and comfortable accommodations on reasonable terms, that the 
economical consideration alone is sufficient to decide the question. 
But besides this, the student thus living in lodgings in the city 
is in danger of being isolated from improving or desirable so- 
ciety, or of finding society which is neither the one nor the 
other ; and these are liabilities to which a judicious parent 
will generally hesitate to expose a youth of tender years. The 
consequence is, that a city college is completely cut off from that 

* The tax-payers of our city, moreover, very justly claim that they do pay for the 
education of such of their sons as they choose to send to the Free College, though 
they pay no tuition fee. They are taxed all their lives for the support of the insti- 
tution, and the amount which they thus contribute to its support in many instances 
greatly exceeds the total amount of the tuition fees which they would have to pay 
if their sons were educated in other institutions. 



20 



STATISTICS OF 



natural pabulum on which sister institutions more advantageously 
situated visibly thrive ; and which maintains the general pros- 
perity of those institutions even when a scrutiny of their records 
demonstrates that, in their own immediate neighborhood, they are 
not gaining, but are sometimes actually losing ground. For the 
purpose of exhibiting the importance of the consideration here 
presented, the following table has been prepared, showing the 
distribution of the students in all the colleges of New York, 
New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, 
and New Hampshire, the colleges in New York city only ex- 
cepted. 



Name of College. 


Students from 
same State. 


Studeuts for- 
eign to State. 


Total. 


Union, N. Y., (1868) 


54 


7 


61* 


Hamilton, N. Y., (1869-70). . . . 


139 


21 


160 


Madison, N. Y. (1869-70) 


58 


41 


99 


Rochester, N. Y, (1869-70) .... 


81 


25 


109 


Genesee, N. Y, (1869-70) 


30 


2 


32f 


Hobart, N. Y.. (1869-70) 


45 


14 


59 


Cornell, N. Y, (1868-9) 


87 


34 


121} 


Princeton, N. J., (1868-9) 


96 


185 


281 


Rutgers, N. J., (1869-70) 


61 


44 


105 


Yale, Conn., (1869 70)...- 


146 


372 


518 


Trinity, Conn., (1869-70) 


27 


65 


92 


Wesleyan, Conn., (1869-70) .... 


19 


134 


153 


Brown, R. I., (1869-70) 


112 


85 


197 


Harvard, Mass., (1869-70) 


872 


191 


563 


Williams, Mass., (1869-70) 


42 


117 


159 


Amherst, Mass., (1869-70) 


118 


137 


255 


Tufts, Mass., ( 1S69-70) 


34 


16 


50§ 


Dartmouth, N. H., (1869-70) . . . 


119 


170 


289 


Univ. of Vt., (1869-70) 


37 


8 


45 


Middlebury, Vt., (1869-70) 


38 


16 


54 


Total 


1,718 


1,684 


3,402 



* The catalogue (the latest obtainable) gives a total of 137 students ; but of these 
all but 91 are marked "left college," and 30 of those present are not classical. 

t The male classical students. 

t These are the students in the Department of Arts (40) ; and i n the Elective 
Department (81). None others study the classics at all. Total in 1869, 412. 

§ The classical students. 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 21 

It thus appears that the colleges embraced within the seven 
States considered derive, on an average, half their numbers 
from beyond the limits of their own States ; and it further 
appears that, in some of the most conspicuous instances, the 
number of the home students is very greatly inferior to that 
of the fox*eign. 

At Dartmouth College, for instance, the foreign are to the 
home students nearly as three to two ; at Yale and Trinity, 
as live to two ; at Princeton, as two to one ; at Williams, 
as three to one ; and at the Wesleyan, as seven to one. 
Every one of these, Yale College included, would be a small 
college, and most of them quite insignificant, if reduced to 
dependence, not merely on a single town, but upon a single 
whole State. Connecticut has, at this time, nearly 600,000 
inhabitants, yet she furnishes to Yale College only 140 students. 
New Hampshire has 350,000, yet furnishes to Dartmouth only 
119. New Jersey has about 800,000, yet furnishes to Prince- 
ton only 00. 

In the whole list of these^eolleges, there is but a single one 
which would rank in numbers above a bare respectability, if 
they were all to be deprived of the patronage which they 
receive from other States. That single exception is Harvard 
University ; but it is extremely questionable whether the popu- 
lar favor which seems now to distinguish that venerable insti- 
tution, is not owing to her having substantially abandoned the 
collegiate system as it has been always understood until our 
day, and thrown into the hands of the student the selection 
of his own coiirse of instruction. That institution is not, 
therefore, a proper example for present comparisons, any more 
than is Cornell University. In saying this, I have no intention 
to speak in criticism or disparagement. I have nothing 

at all at present to say as to the wisdom or unwisdom of the 
views which the governing authorities at Cornell University and 
at Harvard have adopted as their guide. I say only that 



22 STATISTICS OF 

those views are evidently well adapted to catch at this time 
the wind of the popular favor, and that they have been the 
undoubted reason why an institution the newest in the coun- 
try, springing up, like an Aladdin's palace, in a night, has been 
able, at the very outset, to take precedence of nearly every com- 
petitor in the contest for numbers ; and why another, the 
oldest of all, after having, for nearly two centuries, held only, 
in respect of numbers, a secondary rank, has at length suc- 
ceeded, in a few brief years, in placing herself foremost of 
all. 

Next to Cornell University, which" is not here in question, and to 
Harvard, which is almost equally exceptional, the collegiate insti- 
tution most usually cited as an example of pre-eminent popularity 
and success, is Yale College. It has already been shown to what 
a degree this celebrated institution is dependent on its distant 
patronage; but, until after entering upon this inquiry, no suspicion 
was entertained that it was not equally well supported by its pat- 
ronage at home. On referring, however, to those early catalogues 
of Yale College of which mention has been already made in this 
paper, some results have been encountered very unexpected in their 
nature. In the year 1824-5 the total number of students in the 
college was 349, of whom 178, a little more than one half, were 
from Connecticut. The population of the State was then about 
280,000, and its annual increase was slow. In 1830-7 the popula- 
tion had reached to something over 300,000, and the number of 
students from the State was then 194. The undergraduates then 
amounted to 413 ; the home students began to be less than one 
half. The ratio to the population had, however, been in the mean- 
time pretty steadily maintained. But this seems to have been 
the culminating point. In the following year the number of stu- 
dents from the State fell to 184. In 1863 it was 146, as at present ; 
in 1865 it was as low as 114; in 1867, it had increased to 133, and 
now it is 146 again. The population of Connecticut being now 
560,000, this State ought, if continuing to maintain the proportion 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 23 

existing in 1824, to send more than 360 students to her principal 
collegiate institution, instead of only 146. Nor is this singular 
phenomenon explained by supposing that other Connecticut col- 
leges have gained in their own State at the expense of this one. 
By reference to the figures given above, it will be seen that all 
the students from Connecticut in the three colleges of the State 
put together, are at present but 192 ; that is to say, are fewer 
than the number in Yale College alone in 1836. Measured by its 
local patronage, therefore, the prosperity of Yale College would 
seem to be declining. And when we look at such numbers as those 
which the catalogues of Williams, Amherst, Trinity, the Wesley an, 
Dartmouth, and Princeton present, we can hardly doubt that, 
with opportunities to make in those cases a similar comparison of 
the present with the past, we should arrive at a corresponding 
conclusion in regard to some of them. 

Columbia College cannot grow by large accretions from a dis- 
tance, as Yale College has grown in spite the diminishing numbers 
derived from her immediate vicinity; and we have seen why this is 
so. It is a reason which operates equally against all those colleges 
in great cities which do not provide dormitories and refectories 
for their students. The University of Pennsylvania is an example 
of such an institution entirely parallel to our own. It was founded 
in 1755, the year after the foundation of King's College in New 
York. It has always had an able Faculty. Among the professors 
in its present Faculty of Arts are some of the strongest men in 
our country. It is entirely without competition, in the heart of a 
city of six or eight hundred thousand inhabitants; and yet the 
number of undergraduates on its roll for the present year is 
only one hundred and twenty-five. 

Columbia College again cannot grow by accessions from the 
city itself or its immediate environs ; or at least cannot 
grow in this way otherwise than very slowly. We have seen 
why also this cannot be. Collegiate institutions in the city are 
in excess of the requirements of the population. All the col- 



24 STATISTICS OF 

legiate students from New York City, Brooklyn, Williams burgh, 
Jersey City, Hoboken, and Staten Island, now under education 
anywhere throughout the country, put together, would barely 
equal in number the undergraduates in Yale College, and would 
fall short by forty or more of the number of undergraduates 
at Harvard. They are not therefore more than enough to form 
one considerable institution ; yet while at least one-fourth of 
them will always be drawn to distant colleges by causes which 
cannot in any manner be controlled or counteracted, the city 
of New York provides three to share between them the in- 
sufficient number remaining. Had Columbia College been the 
last of these institutions to be established, it would seem as 
if its founders ought to feel that they had committed a seri- 
ous error, and injured rather than benefited the cause of edu- 
cation which they sought to serve. 

The college therefore cannot grow, or cannot at any rate 
grow rapidly, by increase either from the city or from a dis- 
tance, unless it shall, at least to some extent, modify its plan 
of instruction in a more or less distant imitation of that of 
Harvard or of Cornell University. That such a modification 
would bring additional numbers there can be little doubt, 
inasmuch as there are now not unfrequent applications for 
admission to an elective course. 

But, if increase of numbers is esteemed to be a thing of para- 
mount importance, then the true course to secure it, and the only 
course by which it can be secured, is to remove the college to 
the county of Westchester, or to a greater distance, to provide 
for it ample grouuds, to erect dormitories for the accommoda- 
tion of students, and to make the academic community per- 
manently resident on the spot. This done, the institution will 
not fail promptly to command that large attendance from the 
interior of the State, and from neighboring or distant States, 
which will enable it in a few years to rival the oldest and 
most largely thronged collegiate institutions of the country. 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. '25 

In making this statement, the undersigned desires to be dis- 
tinctly understood as making no recommendation. The object 
of this communication, and the exclusive object, is to lay be- 
fore the Board certain facts, some of which are new to the 
undersigned himself, but have been forced upon him in this 
investigation. 

There are certain conditions of things which, if they are 
esteemed to be evils, legislation may mend. There are certain 
others against which it is vain to legislate, since they have 
their origin in causes above the reach of legislation. No 
legislation will enlarge the number of young men annually 
seeking a classical education in the city of New York, since 
that is determined by a law regulating the demand through- 
out the whole community. Nor cau any legislation turn into 
the halls of Columbia College the greater part of the supply, 
while the public authorities are offering the same education 
to all who choose to receive it, free of all charge whatever. 

Here, for the present, the undersigned would choose to leave 
this subject ; but there is one question which may naturally 
be asked, and which he ought perhaps to answer. In the 
year 1860-1 the number of undergraduate students in Columbia 
College was 211. To this total it had risen in the course of 
nine years, from having been only 111, which was its lowest 
point, in 1851-2. But the increase was most signally marked in 
the two years 1859-60 and 1860-61, in which short interval 
of time an advance was made of forty per cent, on the pre- 
vious total, or from 150 to 211. At this point the numbers 
remained nearly stationary for two years longer, after which 
there set in a gradual decline. 

It is further to be noticed that, in the year 1818-9, the 
number of students had been as high as 136, while in the 
following year it fell at once to 112, and remained stationary 
at that point for three years. The question then is, how are 
the remarkable fluctuations which have been observed in the 

4 



26 STATISTICS OF 

number of undergraduate students attending the college to be 
accounted for ? 

In the first place, we notice that the sudden falling off last 
mentioned was coincident with the opening of the Free Academy, 
which took place in the autumn of the year previous to its oc- 
currence, viz., 1848. It seems to the undersigned that the two 
incidents cannot be without some mutual connection. This, 
however, was a period when the population of the city and 
of its environs was rapidly increasing, which cause alone would 
help, with progress of time, to repair the loss. Also the new 
institution, after the novelty was once over, may have ceased to 
interfere with the college so much as in the beginning. To 
whatever cause or causes the effect may have been owing, the 
college had by 1856 more than recovered the ground it had 
lofet, the numbers in that year standing at 144. It was at 
about this time that the resolution was taken by the Trustees 
of the college to abandon the old site, and to remove the 
institution to a point further up town. And the occasion of 
this removal was marked by an effort to transform the insti- 
tution itself into something like a proper university, by erect- 
ing a class of schools for postgraduate instruction. This 
scheme excited the liveliest interest of educators throughout the 
country. It occupied much space in the public prints. The 
undersigned, for his own part, can testify that, having been 
at that time earnestly engaged in the endeavor to establish 
schools of Applied Science in a Southern university, he re- 
members no event in all the educational history of our coun- 
try which ever impressed him more profoundly with a sense 
of its importance. That which thus attracted universal atten- 
tion at a distance of a thousand miles, could not fail to pro- 
duce an effect upon a public nearer at home. New York be- 
came, to some extent, and for a certain length of time, unu- 
sually excited on the subject of Columbia College. And when, 
as a part of the system, eminent Professors were brought 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 27 

here from a distance to address great public audiences, and when 
measures were understood to be in progress for the early 
erection of a splendid college edifice in a site the most eligi- 
ble perhaps that could be found in the city, it is hardly to 
be wondered at that the ordinary drift of affairs in the 
undergraduate department should have felt the influence of 
the swell, and should have made this effect manifest in a cor- 
responding temporary increase of numbers. Had the experi- 
ment proved as successful in the superior department as its 
originators hoped, possibly this influence might have been 
somewhat more lasting. Its abandonment left matters to sub- 
side into the natural courses from which they had been tem- 
porarily disturbed, and the numbers of the undergraduate 
students gradually fell off. Three positive causes may also 
have conspired with this negative one, to produce the same 
effect. The first was the discontinuance, in 1864, of the 
grammar school, which had for so long a time served as a 
useful feeder to the college. The second was the establish- 
ment, in the same year, of the School of Mines, which, it 
can hardly be doubted, has drawn away some students who 
might have otherwise become connected with the college. 
And the third, and perhaps the most important, was the erec- 
tion of the Free Academy, by act of the Legislature passed 
in ISfifi, into a regular college ; an act demanded by no pub- 
lic necessity, but which has removed in the minds of some 
parents, and of more young men, the only objection they had 
previously entertained toward it as a desirable school in which 
to secure a collegiate education.* 



* Since this paper was read before the Trustees, an additional fact has been 
brought to the attention of the writer by the Clerk of the Board. On the 15th of 
•Tune, 1857, the fees for tuition in the college were reduced from $90 to $50 per 
annum. This being just at the close of the collegiate year, no sensible effect from 
it, if such an effect were likely to occur at all, could be looked for before the \ear 
following. There entered, in 1S57, forty-one students to Freshman standing. In 
the four succeding years, from 1858 "to 1861 inclusive, the admissions to the 



28 STATISTICS OF 

While presenting these considerations, the undersigned is 
not in the least disposed to question that the slight falling off 
in the numbers of the present year may be to some degree 
attributable to the new experiment in regard to discipline, at- 
tendance, and the mode of determining scholastic grades, 
which we have at present in progress. It is manifest that 
some parents have very mistaken notions as to the degree 
and kind of surveillance which it is possible for a college 
faculty to exercise over the students submitted to their guar- 
dianship. It seems to be thought that college authorities 
have it in their power to protect young men against the 
moral dangers to which youth are exposed, very much as a 
father of a family can watch over his own children beneath 
his own roof. Surely no impression can be more mistaken 
than this. There is no situation in the world in which an 
individual is more completely removed from all effectual 
straint, whether the restraint of direct authority or that Of 
public opinion, than within the walls of an American college. 
Whoever believes otherwise, however, will naturally believe that, 
at present, the students of Columbia College are not governed 
enough. Similar distrust may be felt with other parts of our 
system. But this system was never designed to be perpetu- 
ated if it should be proved, in practice to work less satisfac- 
torily than that which it has temporarily superseded. It cer- 
tainly has not done so as yet. The experiment is an impor- 
tant one, and the apprehensions of the timid or the inexperi- 



same standing averaged sixty. On the 19th of May, 1S62, the fees were raised 
from $50 to $100. Again the effect, if any, could only be. estimated justly. 
after the lapse of a year. In 1862 there entered fifty-one Freshmen, but the admis- 
sions for the four years following reached only the average of fovty-two, returning 
about to the point where they stood in 1857. 

These facts make it obvious that the cost of tuition has not been wholly without 
influence upon the numbers in attendance on the college ; but this influence, in 
the case under present consideration, was only one out of several causes sim- 
ultaneously operating. 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 29 

enced should not prevent us from giving it a fair trial. If 
it is really successful, there will have been an important and 
valuable point gained ; if otherwise, it can be discontinued at 
any moment. 

In conclusion, the undersigned feels it impossible to repress 
one sad reflection. It was a Avise prevision which early laid 
the foundation of King's College, now called Columbia, upon 
this island, then occupied by but a handful of colonists, but 
already visibly destined to be the site of one of the world's 
greatest capitals. It was a judicious beneficence which be- 
stowed on the infant institution an endowment which, though 
seemingly inconsiderable at the time, could not fail to grow 
in value with the growing educational wants of the community, 
and so to give to it the strength to meet those wants by 
enlarging, from time to time, the extent of its operations. 
The college has thus been always able to respond to the 
natural demand of this whole community, and even of the 
adjacent towns, for the higher education required for their 
young men, to the full extent which that demand might reach. 
Nor has there ever been anything in its organization, in its 
management, or in its teachings, to repel from it the public 
confidence. It has always been kept wholly free from any 
just imputation of sectarianism in religion, inculcating no dis- 
tinctive theological dogmas, and extending its honors and its 
more substantial benefits indiscriminately to youth of all denom- 
inations. The governing Board named in its original charter 
embraced one minister from every denomination of Protestant 
Christians in the city of New York at the time, including the 
Dutch Reformed, the Ancient Lutheran, the French Protestant, 
the Presbyterian, and the Episcopalian ; and this body has 
never been, at any time, without members representing all or 
most of these denominations, and occasionally others, including 
even the Jewish. Nor have appointments to any of the Fac- 
ulties of the institution been made with reference to the reli- 



30 STATISTICS OF 

gious opinions or associations of the candidates ; with the 
exception that, in the fulfilment of the condition of an early 
endowment by Trinity Church, the President is always to be 
a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church. This col- 
lege, therefore, has always been, as it is now, an abundantly 
cajmble and lit agency to supply the entire demand for higher 
education in the city of New York ; and there is not now, 
and there never has been, any reason to distrust the good 
faith with which it discharges, or has discharged, the impor- 
tant trust confided to it. That the public authorities, in dis- 
regard of an existing provision so important, so valuable, and 
so entirely adequate to the exigency, should have, at great 
expense to the people, created another instrumentality to per- 
form the very same work, cannot but be pronounced a grave 
error, and a departure from the most obvious principles of 
public economy. By this act the usefulness and efficiency of 
Columbia College have been to so large, an extent paralyzed, 
that it would seem to be no longer possible for this institu- 
tion to accomplish all the good of which, as a school of the 
Liberal Arts, it is capable, except upon the condition of abso- 
lute removal from the city. Can any person of unbiassed 
mind, in view of the existing state of things, and of the 
causes which have produced it, in view of the vast power of 
usefulness here accumulated, and of the narrowness of the held 
left it in which to be useful, repress a feeling of regret that, 
in the provisions heretofore attempted in behalf of the higher 
education in New York, there should not have ruled a more 
just and adequate comprehension of the exigencies of the 
situation, and a more intelligent appreciation of the value of 
the instrumentalities already existing ? 

To such of the alumni, and other friends of Columbia Col- 
lege, as have recently interested themselves in the welfare of 
the institution, and suffered themselves to be disturbed by the 
less rapid growth and therefore seemingly less thriving condition 



COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 31 

of the parent stock than of its young and vigorous branches, 
the professional schools, it is presumed that the facts and 
deductions presented in tbis paper will prove a sufficient reply. 
All which is respectfully submitted. 

F. A. P. Barnaku, 

President. 
Columbia College, Dec. 30, 1869. 



Li- >it4. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




w 1 




